Letter: Support Water Act

Clean water is a bipartisan issue with a long history of bipartisan support. Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 with the broad bipartisan support of two-thirds of Congress.

Comment

By Iris Smith

Ionia Sentinel - Standard-Ionia, MI

By Iris Smith

Posted Oct. 12, 2012 at 10:57 PM
Updated Oct 12, 2012 at 10:59 PM

By Iris Smith

Posted Oct. 12, 2012 at 10:57 PM
Updated Oct 12, 2012 at 10:59 PM

Clean water is a bipartisan issue with a long history of bipartisan support. Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 with the broad bipartisan support of two-thirds of Congress.

Congress passed the Clean Water Act with the goal of ending the use of our nation’s waters for discharge of pollutants by 1985. Clearly we have missed that goal by a long shot, though we have made great progress in cleaning up our waterways for swimming, fishing, and drinking water. Still, industrial pollution, toxic dumping, sewage overflows, extreme energy extraction, and many more problems continue to threaten the waters on which our families and communities rely.

We must insist our elected officials renew our nation’s commitment to ending the use of our nation’s waters for the discharge of pollutants, and to work to make all our waters swimmable, fishable and drinkable.

These fundamental goals of the Clean Water Act should have overwhelming bipartisan support, as the act’s initial passage had, because they are crucial to public health, well-being, and local economies all across the nation.

Clearly, we need our Congress to stand up and put partisan bickering and career boosting politicking aside and do what they were actually elected to do and put the good of our country and its citizens first.

This means voting for us and not themselves and their careers.

We need to accomplish what the Clean Water Act actually was passed to do and NOW; 50 years from now will be too late.